1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic music providing apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
There have been proposed some electronic music providing apparatus to electronically display music on an image display screen and to turn music pages on the screen according to page turning signals.
An electronic music display unit and a method of displaying electronic music which have been disclosed by Japanese Application Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-231379 enable displaying electronic music on a liquid crystal display panel of the touch-sensitive type and handwriting memo data on electronic music. This invention employs a foot pedal to generate a page turn signal to update music pages on-screen. This invention also arranges music data and handwritten memo data in a tree-like structure for management, which enables addition and deletion of memo data without destroying music data.
An electronic music display apparatus disclosed by Japanese Application Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 05-73042 is so constructed to read music data from a floppy disk set in personal computer, display it on a liquid crystal display panel, and turn music pages on screen forward or backward by a page turn signal generated by operation of a foot switch or a hand switch.
An electronic music instrument disclosed by Japanese Application Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 10-254434 is characterized in that the display screen area is divided into two page areas and that, when music on the former part is completed, the music data on the former part of the current page is updated by music data of the former part of the next page and the latter part of the current page is updated by music data of the latter part of the next page automatically by a time interrupt. It has been proposed that each of the former and latter parts is divided into three areas to update music data in the order.
However, the above conventional electronic music display apparatus and methods still have the problems below unsolved.
The above conventional electronic music display apparatus and methods cannot implement page turning according to the playing technique level of the player or player""s taste.
In many cases, memo data as music reference information is written on music. However, this is very time-consuming and troublesome when a lot of music players such as orchestra members write memo data on their own electronic music providing apparatus and this may also cause writing errors.
Further, in a concert which plays a lot of music pieces, it is necessary to select music pieces to be played, put them in order, and cue among them before playing. This is very time-consuming and troublesome.
A mechanism which uses a foot switch or a hand switch to turn music pages is not convenient for a piano player who uses both hands and feet to play.
Further, it is preferable to use some electronic music providing apparatus to display a lot of music or to display music bigger on an image display unit of a limited screen size. However, it is difficult for a single player to operate a few electronic music providing apparatus to turn pages during playing.
Furthermore, image display units usually have a rectangular and flat screen and in some cases, they are preferably placed on their sides or reversed to use. However, in such cases, the content on the screen is sideways or reversed and hard to be recognized.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a convenient electronic music providing apparatus that can provide proper music to a lot of players such as orchestra members.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a plurality of electronic music displays with music data and to facilitate update (page turning) of music pages on-screen.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an electronic music providing apparatus which enables page turning according to the playing technique level of the player or player""s taste.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an electronic music providing apparatus which can send the entered music memo data to another electronic music providing apparatus to display it.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide an electronic music providing apparatus which can easily provide electronic pages of music pieces.
It is a more particular object of the present invention to provide an electronic music providing apparatus which can easily instruct to turn music pages.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an electronic music providing apparatus which can be easily used together with the other electronic music providing apparatus.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an electronic music providing apparatus which can be oriented freely for optimum legibility.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an electronic music providing apparatus which can be used as a player electronic music display unit in the electronic music providing apparatus which the inventors of this patent publication (Japan Patent Publication 2000-367329) had developed and applied for a patent.
The present invention provides an electronic music providing apparatus for displaying stored music data and updating the music pages according to a music display control data signal; wherein said electronic music providing apparatus comprises a music control unit which inputs score data, classifies the score data according to play parts, and transmits it, and an electronic music display unit which receives music data of each play part, stores it, displays the stored music data, and turns music pages according to the music display control data signal from said music page turning means in said electronic music display unit and said music control unit.
Further, the present invention provides an electronic music providing apparatus for displaying stored music data on an image display block and updating the music pages according to a music display control data signal; wherein said electronic music providing apparatus comprises an update ratio setting block which sets and inputs a page turning ratio and a page turning edition processing block which divides music to be displayed on said image display block according to a preset update ratio and edits music data which is updated and displayed at a preset update interval.
The electronic music providing apparatus is equipped with an update delay time control block which sets and inputs said preset update time difference. Said page turning edition processing block updates music in a specified range when said page turn signal is input and turns music pages in the other range at a preset update time later after said page turn signal is entered
Further, the electronic music providing apparatus comprises
a memo input means which inputs memo data for music,
a common/private data hierarchical processing block which separates the entered memo data from music data and hierarchically arranges private memo data (for personals) and common memo data (to be shared by music members) into tree-like structures,
a common memo edition processing block which edits common memo data to be sent to the other electronic music providing apparatus, and
a transmission processing block which transmits and receives common memo data; wherein the electronic music providing apparatus is designed to transmit the received common memo data to another electronic music providing apparatus.
Further, the electronic music providing apparatus comprises
a play order registration processing block which determines an order of playing music pieces and registers it,
a music displaying block which displays the registered pieces of music, and
a play order control block which checks the playing order of music (for double order registration or invalid order) and shows the top page of music in the next registered order when the last page of the currently-played piece of music comes by calling the music data from the music data storage block.
Further, the electronic music providing apparatus comprises a page turning processing block which determines pages to be turned; wherein said page turning edition processing block updates the music page on the screen according to the preset page update order.
Further, the electronic music providing apparatus is characterized in that a means for generating page turn signals has a plurality of operation switches and said page turning edition processing block turns music pages in response to a page turn signal determined by respective operation switches.
Further, the electronic music providing apparatus comprises a music orientation indicating means which changes the orientation of music relative to said image display block.